1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a grommet, and more particularly to a grommet which enables a long member (e.g. a wire harness) to be positively and easily passed through and retained to a mounting plate such as a panel of a vehicle body.
2. Related Art
There have heretofore been proposed various grommets which enable a wire harness to be passed through and mounted on a panel of a car body of an automobile, and the Applicant of the present application has proposed a grommet (Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 8-212857) which includes a smaller-diameter tubular portion for fitting on a wire harness, a larger-diameter tubular portion for fitting in a mounting hole, a tapering tubular portion interconnecting the smaller-diameter and larger-diameter tubular portions, and a groove edge portion and a holding piece portion which are provided at an outer peripheral surface of the larger-diameter tubular portion.
In this example, the larger-diameter tubular portion is turned inside out, with its inner peripheral surface directed outwardly, and by doing so, a peripheral edge portion of the holding piece portion is deformed into a tapering, cylindrical shape, and is passed through the mounting hole. Subsequently, the smaller-diameter portion is drawn into the mounting hole, and as a result, because of a resilient force tending to restore the holding piece into its initial shape, the larger-diameter portion is restored into its initial shape in such a manner that the groove edge portion is engaged in a peripheral edge of the mounting hole. Therefore, the wire harness can be easily and positively mounted with a relatively smaller force than other conventional grommets.
In the above conventional example, if the smaller-diameter portion is passed through the mounting hole with its axis disposed out of alignment with the axis of the mounting hole, when mounting the wire harness, there is a possibility that the groove is ill-fitted to the mounting hole so as to be in eccentric relation to the peripheral edge of this mounting hole.
Therefore, it has been desired to provide the type of grommet which enables the groove to be positively and easily fitted to the mounting hole in a proper condition.